Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Romans 12:11-12 The Message
We entered the sanctuary to celebrate the life of a friend upon her death. Stopping midway down the aisle, I glanced toward the front where the flickering flames of candles, both the tall white pair on the alter and the first fat purple one for Advent, immediately caught my attention. Fire, in any form, always demands attention. But, I was not expecting a Christmas setting for a eulogy; yet how appropriate.
Later that same month, we attended the 13th annual tree lighting ceremony at Vogel State Park in the North Georgia Mountains. We always look forward to this special Christmas celebration and this visit marked our seventh consecutive year to attend. Because of the extreme drought and a rash of wildfires during the fall, a burn ban had been placed throughout the lower Appalachian mountains. We expected the annual bonfires, which offers much needed warmth on a cold night, to be forbidden. But recent rains had lifted the ban; and three bonfires, contained within metal fire pits and manned by park volunteers, blazed, often sending embers skyward.
I was sitting close enough to one fire to watch its hypnotizing orange flames dance and to feel its comforting warmth embrace me. However I also realized that if I or anyone touched the flames or the container, that comfort would give away to pain.
Each year, the hundreds of people who gather for this annual tree lighting are handed a small candle for the singing of the closing hymn by candlelight. This time, organizers started passing the tiny flame from candle to candle too soon and the wax burned down quickly. Folks threw the melted stubs into the bonfires long before singing the first line of "Silent Night." Once home, I spent a half hour scrapping melted wax from our gloves and my jeans.
Probably as much as any entity, fire demonstrates how man can use God's gifts for good or evil. Many of the fires throughout the Southeastern mountains during the fall prompted the arrests of several for arson. People died; property was destroyed. Individuals misused His gift. Yet, properly handled, fire serves many beneficial purposes.
"The invention of fire antedates history, but no nation has yet been discovered which did not know the use of fire. Humans soon discovered ways to use fire and found it to be not only a very useful servant, but also a dreaded master." Andrew Robert Faussett, Faussett's Bible Dictionary.
Fire, a visual metaphor common to all cultures, ancient and modern, appears throughout the Bible as a symbol for many traits: evil, anger, retribution, punishment, purification, zeal, victory, energy, sacrament, light, inspiration, the Holy Spirit. Yet, one of the many fire metaphors - that of refiner's fire - ignites reflection. George Arthur Buttrick, in The Interpreter's Bible, explains. "This fire does not destroy but refines. The ancient refiner watched the silver in the crucible, and kept the flame burning until other base metals had all come to the top and been skimmed off, until all agitation had ceased, and until he could see his face in the silver as in a mirror. This is a parable of the refining fire…in Christ."
Although we find the term "fire" in several hundred references throughout the Bible, it does not appear in any of the Nativity accounts. Other than the bright star which moves across the heavens, no other form of light or heat is mentioned. And yet, in our many replications of this holy event in pictures, live nativity scenes and movies, people carry torches to light the way.
Today, we Christians choose to use the flame of a lone candle, two candles, representing Jesus as both human and divine, or of a cluster as within an Advent wreath to symbolize this holy season, the birth of Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
The flickering flame of a taper or two can beckon us to the altar, to kneel, to pray, to reflect. Before the flame is extinguished at the altar, it is first transferred to a candlelighter, then carried outside to the world.
May the fire that burns within our hearts, "fueled and aflame" with the spirit of Christmas, radiate to others throughout the new year.
2017
Comments